Stroke

Dr. Abid Khan had an acute myocardial infarction due to acute occlusion of main left coronary artery. This happened on Friday after Thanksgiving in 2006. Abid was mowing his lawn when he experienced this chest pain. Main left coronary artery occlusion, also known as "the widow maker" in the medical world is usually a fatal event. 911 was called and Abid was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond, VA . This is the same hospital at which Dr. Abid Khan worked as a physician at that time.

Abid was 46 at the time. On arrival at the hospital, he went into cardiac arrest and CPR was performed. An emergency angioplasty was tried, which failed. then an emergency cardiac bypass grafting was done . In spite of the CABG (cardiac bypass), his heart did not pulsate (left ventricle did not function). He was on life support (biventricular device, ventilator) for almost 2 weeks. During these two weeks, several echocardiograms showed no activity of the left ventricle. Cardiac transplant was being planned; however Abid was not in a stable enough condition for a transplant at that time. He was moved to another hospital where the cardiac surgeon decided to remove his heart and put an artificial heart until he is stable enough for a heart transplant. During all this time, Abid was in a coma. When Abid was taken into the ER, and his chest was opened, the biventricular device was removed, miraculously his heart started working. The artificial heart implant was not done and he was brought back to the intensive care unit, with his own heart functioning. He was in drug induced coma for over 2 months, during which he had 4-5 open heart surgeries.

During this period he had suffered from multiple pulmonary emboli, deep venous thrombosis, and worst of all strokes on both right and left cerebral hemispheres. He had tracheotomy to wean him off the respirator. The stroke caused right side weakness and aphasia. When he finally came out of coma, he could speak, however he had a great difficulty expressing himself in spoken and written language. When he came out of coma, he could not believe that it was 2007 and that it has been almost 3 months since he recalls anything. He went through intensive rehabilitation therapy. Abid is very courageous, determined, and intelligent. He always had a superior intelligence. We used to call him a genius. His right side weakness is almost completely better. His language is better however it is still very difficult for him to express himself.

He has the right words in his head, but when he tries to say them, different words come out. The same goes for writing. Abid believes in himself and he did not let all this bring him down. He is not a quitter. He is not giving up and I see an improvement in him everyday. Abid has a very strong will power. I believe that his will power had a lot to do with his miraculous recovery.

Abid talks about his near death experience and says that all that time during coma, was like a pleasant dream. He recalls being by a beautiful lake and says that it was all pleasant and happy experience. Abid is very positive and is trying hard to help himself recover. He reads books, talks to friends, writes bogs, and spends a lot of time with the computer, doing different things. Abid has a passion for technology, horoscopes, religion, and spirituality. Abid has a lot of insight about life and people. Abid calls this event in his life as death and rebirth. He always refers to his miraculous survival as rebirth and says that he died and was given a new life.


posted by Abida Mazin